At 8:05 on the morning of September 23 the Sun crossed into Libra, and for a moment the day and the night were the same length. The old astrologers called this point the balance. By the next morning the scale had already tipped.

In Virgo the question was what's worth keeping. Libra takes everything we kept and puts it on the scale, next to what matters to everyone else, and the body keeps the account in the lower back and the kidneys. So the question this month is what it costs to keep the peace, and how you tell when it's worth the price. The season runs until 5:38pm on October 23. It's the same for everybody. Where you feel it is your chart.

Get your chart out

Find three things. First, the house Libra falls in: the part of your life doing the weighing this month, keeping the peace and working out what's fair. Second, your Venus sign, because Venus rules Libra and works all season. Third, the house Aries falls in, directly opposite, even if it's empty. A seesaw has two ends, and when something is happening in your Libra house, the Aries house often holds the cause or the remedy. No birth time? Run the season on your Venus sign. The houses are extra.

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Libra

There is a particular tiredness that comes from being reasonable all day. You've understood everyone's position, including your own, well enough to argue it either way, and by four in the afternoon there's a dull ache low across the back. A small decision you haven't made follows you from room to room, and somewhere a voice says you should be coping better than this, although you can't find the thing you're failing to cope with.

Rulership. Libra is cardinal air, ruled by Venus. It governs the kidneys first, and with them salt, fluid and acid-alkaline balance, along with the adrenals (shared with Aries), the lumbar spine, the veins, the upper urinary tract and, through Venus, the ovaries.

Physical.Cardinal means acute: things flare fast and settle fast, and are rarely the start of anything chronic. When this zone is lit, blood pressure comes forward, the sweet tooth gets louder, alcohol pulls harder, and the headaches are the stress kind. Libra runs cool, and Venus normally brings the moisture and comfort. This year she isn't in the sign, so the season runs drier and tenser than a Libra month should.

Psychology. No other sign sees through another person's eyes like this one, and the cost is written into the gift: seeing both sides at once means never putting either down. Its shadow is tension and indecision, and in Libra analysis paralysis is physical. The tension goes into the lower back and stays. The voice about coping better is a comparison against nothing, and it tells you nothing about your effort. The work of this sign is knowing when to compromise and when to stand in your own truth, and telling the difference under pressure.

This season. For thirty days the Sun sits in Libra, so these organs are lit for everyone. For the first week Mercury is here too, and Mercury governs the nerves and the small tubes, so it stimulates the nerve supply to the kidney zone. If the first week felt like overthinking everything, that's why. He leaves on September 30, and from there the Sun has Libra to itself. The New Moon at 17° Libra, 11:50pm on October 10, is the best window of the season for anything kidney, lower back or fluid related; the Moon grows from there, and a waxing moon is the time to add to the body, so if you're starting something supportive, start it here. On October 15 the Sun meets Jupiter at 22°, and Jupiter expands whatever it touches. It's the most pleasant day of the month and the only fully light one. Put something good on it.

For you. Your Libra house is where the Sun sits all month, and where you're doing the most weighing: keeping the peace, holding both sides, working out what's fair. If that area of your life has been loud since the equinox, that's the season you're feeling. What the planets in there are doing is the work of a reading.

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Venus

Some people come out of a hard week with their skin flaring. Some lose their voice. Some carry it low in the pelvis. Venus explains most of the difference.

Rulership. Venus rules Libra and Taurus. Through Libra she holds the kidneys, the veins, the ovaries and the body's hormonal balance, and through Taurus the throat, the hair and the skin.

Physical. She is the normaliser. She softens whatever she touches and takes the edge off pain, and she works through moisture and comfort rather than heat or cold. When she's working well, things feel easy, supple and regulated; when she's short, the skin, throat and blood sugar are often the first to say so.

Psychology. Venus is what you find beautiful, what comforts you, and how you relate to other people. Her shadow is the other side of comfort: keeping the peace at your own expense, and the extra glass of wine standing in for a need nobody has named.

This season. Because she rules Libra, Venus should be doing the softening all month. This year she spends the whole season in Scorpio, where she's been since September 10. Scorpio is her detriment, which is less alarming than it sounds: she's working in territory that doesn't suit her. Everything she governs moves into Scorpio territory with her, so the bladder, the urethra, the colon, the uterus and the pelvis carry her this month, which is worth noticing if you've anything going on down there. 

At around 3:15pm on October 3 she stops and turns backwards, and from then she's least able to do her softening job. It's the densest day of the month; things feel tenser than the circumstances warrant, and it's not a day to make anything harder than it is. 

On October 11, Mars squares her from Leo. Mars inflames, and he runs too hot for what she does, so the kidneys, skin, throat, veins, hair and blood sugar all run irritable. Not a day to push on anything. Across four weeks she's worked over by Mars, then Uranus, then the Sun. The planet meant to be softening this season is in the wrong sign, going backwards and busy. She's still here, but she isn't available in the usual way.

For you. Your Venus sign is your normal, the setting your body has regulated to all your life, and it shows where your softening goes. Venus in Aries lands on the head and adrenals, Venus in Taurus on the throat, Venus in Scorpio on the pelvic floor. Look up the body zone your Venus sign rules: that's where your comfort lives, and where you'll feel it first when comfort runs short, which this month it will.

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Aries

Aries is the opposite sign of Libra, so it’s also lit up this season. Symptoms at one end, look at the other.

Rulership. Aries rules the cranium and the bones of the head and face, the motor centres of the brain and the eyes, the adrenal glands, the arteries, the upper jaw and teeth, and the blood, iron and the mechanism of fever. Its planet is Mars.

Physical. Aries runs hot, dry and fast, with a strong vital force and quick recovery. On one side of that sit headaches, migraines, eye strain, dizziness and nosebleeds; on the other, adrenal fatigue, because this constitution burns hard and then empties out.

Psychology. Aries is wilful, direct and brave, always a step into the next thing before the last one is finished. Its shadow is impatience, frustration and trouble finishing. It moves before it thinks, and Libra's job on this axis is to cut the stress at the root before it locks in.

This season. Aries is hot and dry where Libra is cool and moist, and the adrenals are the one organ they share, which makes this the blood pressure axis: adrenals up puts pressure on the kidneys, and strained kidneys make the adrenals compensate. Saturn and Neptune have both been parked in Aries all year. Saturn dries and restricts, Neptune dissolves and blurs, and together they read as trying to think through fog, collectively rather than personally. This month the Sun walks over to oppose them, and the two pull in opposite directions. 

On September 26 the Sun opposes Neptune at 3°, both ends on adrenal degrees: vague, foggy, and the body holds salt, so pressure edges up. 

The Full Moon at 3° Aries, 12:49am on September 27, lands on the same degree the next night and lights up the adrenal end of the axis. Go light on alcohol, don't book anything elective, and remember the waning moon that follows is for subtracting from the body, not adding. 

Then on October 4 the Sun opposes Saturn at 11° and flips it: the salt dial drops, pressure runs low, you're dizzy standing up and thirsty however much you drink. A salt craving here is the body asking for adrenal support rather than a bad habit, and warmth and moisture are what help.

For you. Your Aries house is where Saturn and Neptune have been working on you all year, drying and blurring that area of life slowly, whether you noticed or not.

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It doesn't matter if the house is empty; these are transits, so everyone has them. It's also the compensating end: if your Libra house has felt stuck, the Aries house is often where you've been pushing instead.

Care

If you’re feeling unsettled, here are some ideas to ground you. This isn’t a checklist of perfect things to accomplish in the season. Specific care details to your natal chart are available through a personalised reading.